This week in our tutorial we had an interesting debate about whether it would be beneficial to have taxes on online shopping or not.
Personally I love online shopping, a lot of things i want don't seem to be sold in the area I live, or country even, so having the chance to buy it and have it in 3 days to me far outeighs having to go to a store, order it and wait a week or two for them to finally get it to me.
I suppose it sounds selfish, but from where I stand online shopping makes things more easily available. Yes it hurts retail businesses in my area, but at the same time, shouldn't it challenge them to be more efficient and carry more products? Maybe I'm thinking on a small scale, or even too simple but to me it seems as though retail business are going out of business because life is expensive. I say this because, in Hong Kong there are no taxes, here it's taxes and the prices are double of Hong Kong.
As an example, it costs maybe 50 cents to produce a plastic molded toy, yet they are sold here for an outrageous price. Yes there needs to be profit, but it seems so ridiculous to me that something that costs you 50 cents to produce is sold for say 30-50 dollars?
This whole debate sort of made me feel guilty about shopping online, and to be fair should i feel guilty? I'm not sure.
6 comments:
There is no shame in trying to get the best price possible. People used to look through catalouges and got to various shops looking for the best price on a certain product. Nowadays people have opted more for online shopping as that is usually where the best deals are. You are right in saying the prices here are outrageous and through the use of online shopping it has added a new competitor to the market place. This way retailers will be forced to set their prices at a respectable level. A good example of which is the CD prices at JB HI FI.
You are absolutely right, back in the day it was catalog deals, not it's online deals. Even flights and holidays are offered cheaper online. Crazy how you can buy pretty much anything online or find a deal for it.
I don't think you should feel guilty for shopping online. i personally think its a great idea, it is so much easier, cheaper and there is more variety. I ordered my university books online because they were so much cheaper than buying them from the university book shop
Retail businesses need to adapt. You cant feel guilty for loving convenience. The consumer has never altered their behaviour to suit the business. It is always the other way around. Online is the way of the world and businesses need to embrace this. I buy pretty much everything on line because it is convenient. It is the key benefit of most online businesses.
The reason why online shopping attracts me is because the cheaper price than in shops. As for me, I do not purchase much online especially clothes. I am quite enjoying online shopping, but I still worried about the quality and the size of the clothes. The same problem emerged within press industry, as I mentioned that though e-reading is popular, books have not lost its value. As you mentioned, online shopping could challenge retails to be more efficient. From that point, the emergence of online shopping is not a bad thing. I prefer go shopping in shops with my friends, the feeling is quite different from online shopping.
I completely agree with all the above comments. Its is not a fault of yours that you want to find products at not only the best possible price, but also via the most convenient avenue. However, as issue here is that if we are making all of our purchases through foreign websites, our profits are being sent directly overseas, which can affect our nation in the long run. The local retail industry needs to adapt to retain our business
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